I first stumbled upon the beautiful Angkor Wat, during my crazy days in Sony, when it was featured as demo pictures and videos for hi end cameras. Boy, I told myself, that’s where I wana be next.It is the largest religious monument in the world. Among the mysterious historical legends, architecture and the grandeur of the temples that was built in between 8th-13th century, where Angelina Jolie set foot on the Tomb Raider shooting scene. A great deal of restoration has been done on some say the lost city, but there in… lies the utterly heartbreaking sight of poverty.
Four memorable days in Siam Reap, I did not see a single clean fully dressed kid… mostly barefooted and shirtless… it stopped me from bitching about my life for a while.
When Leo and I landed in Phnom Pen airport from Bangkok on 1 Nov 05, we were greeted by a bunch of reporters and professional photographers/videographers, Jeez, I’m not a celebrity, what’s going on what’s going on? Later did we know that it was the first flight out of this budget plane to Phnom Pen, hence the PR scene. After waiting for an hour for our 8 other travel buddies (we thought they have left to Siam Reap without us!? Sob sob … L ) they finally arrived on a mini van with our name board!! From this very moment, my adventure in Cambodia began alongside with these 9 hilarious characters.
Intro of the 9 dudes and dudetes:
When Leo and I landed in Phnom Pen airport from Bangkok on 1 Nov 05, we were greeted by a bunch of reporters and professional photographers/videographers, Jeez, I’m not a celebrity, what’s going on what’s going on? Later did we know that it was the first flight out of this budget plane to Phnom Pen, hence the PR scene. After waiting for an hour for our 8 other travel buddies (we thought they have left to Siam Reap without us!? Sob sob … L ) they finally arrived on a mini van with our name board!! From this very moment, my adventure in Cambodia began alongside with these 9 hilarious characters.
Intro of the 9 dudes and dudetes:
Gordan – Macho Telco guy/Guitarist AKA ‘Tailo’. Trip organizer. + YC’s childhood best buddy.
Wei – My ever lovable French speaking best friend from Uni with a kindest heart in the whole wide world, now in Singapore professionally involved in community service for the elderly, while training in Psychology. Gordan’s beloved wife + trip F&B manager
YC – Auditor by profession. Tough on the outside but soft on the inside sporty guy, who also happens to represent the fish family with his name resembling ikan bawang. J Trip Finance director.
Chong – Tall quiet dude whom surprised us by his commando-like speech during our last dinner in Siam Reap. Another External Auditor.
Ryan – Our cute helpful unofficial assistant tour guide whom all of us had owed him many ‘1 dollar’ for translating from our Cambodian Engish speaking Lian (The real tour guide)
Jean – The sparkling sweet petite pretty bubbly majong kaki and shopaholic who works for the ever cool Apple company, between, she screams at cats but not cockroaches !!! Trip F&B manager.
Leo – My caring dive buddy in PP. A vain pot who dies for attention and loves to play pranks and talks crap. Trip Night Entertainment Manager.
Diin – ‘GENG DING’!!!!!!! (funny canto accent) J The hardcore photographer from Sibu. Trip Stand Up Comedian.
Yida – The most softhearted and softspoken guy, afterall he’s a software engineer and not hardware!! (for Creative -MP3 player). Trip Time Keeper. Salute for his willpower of getting up every morning just to wake everyone up!!)
So the journey begins with this newfound family.
See photo, a mind blowing 6 hours of mesmerizing padi field road trip (It's real!! not a window's screensaver!) took us from Phnom Pen to Siam Reap, my best time to dream about the world, while the rest played poker and Diin eagerly waiting for a good photo op.
We arrived at Jasmin Lodge with a wide sunshine smile knowing that we’ll have a good night sleep finally. 1st night in a week’s, Leo and I had the most comfortable room in our trip, with aircon and hot shower!! And I have a new roomie Jean!
Can you believe i took this photo??
Woke up at 4:30am the next morning to greet the beautiful sunrise at famous Angkor Wat. (We got our stoned faces printed on the 3 days pass). The mist in the darkness during sunrise so compliments the mysterious ambient. Everyone was whispering for some reason, as if afraid of waking up a giant monster! I’ve never seen so many professional photographers together in my entire life, I suddenly felt so tiny weeny standing amongst them as their huge gigantic fully lens and tripod equipped camera started to makes gentle clicking sound, thank god I muted my Canon A95 digital camera (by the way, I have two options, dog barking or bird chirping sound). Ha! (A classic of a car door shutting sound – Continental vs Proton). It’s ok, I just walk far far away…
Young man, no stamina?
1st delicacy dinner – Crocodile steamboat, I know.. it’s gross… how does it taste? tough and a lil like pork actually. But I guess it’s less disgusting compared to the Chinese eating a bore’s genitals having believed to improve a man’s ‘masculine performance’. Taboo or delicacy in the Asian culture? Say no more.
Celebrated Gordan’s birthday at Dead Fish, an inspiringly decorated Cambodian style Restaurant-Pub. Every table in this dimly lit place, has its own private cozy corner nicely ornamented distinctively, from a more common table seating, bar seating, hammocks corner, stone and pool surrounded room, to a rotan mattress-cussion lying bench, they each have a unique sense of Cambodian interior designs. I bet the owner is either gay or an ad person. My fav is definitely the hammock corner !! So much so that our hang out there has led to an inside joke – the family left Wei, Ryan and I at Dead Fish !!!! sob sob…..
While Wei and I continuously be amused by our Cambodian tour guide’s funny accent…. (to recall : Go Lun = Go for lunch, meek say = milk shake). The group persisted in paying attention to him, or rather pretending to pay attention, and why did they still needed Ryan’s 1 dollar translation later on??!! Beats me.While the mysteries & anecdotes Suryavarnam, Rajendravarnam and Jayavarnam remain remarkable, I’m more concern about the poverty. It’s a blessing in disguise that the discovery of this lost city, became the source of economy and I pray hard it will only get better.
Diin focusing on another great shot, of which some were used in this article. 
aren't they beautiful? so full of life !After 4 days, it was time to face the toughest part of the trip …. Drumrolls….the bumpy road trip from Siam reap to Thai border. !!! guys, hang on tight! No matter how much I’ve read about it, it was still 100x worst than my expectation!
To rub salt on our wounds, we met with a broken bridge along the hell ride. After waiting for only 15 mins for it to be mended (which means pulling out 2 fallen small prank woods mind you that is smaller than the width of a car tyre and laid vertically), our mental taxi drive zoomed across the bridge as my heart raced a 100miles/hr !!!!
Highly recommend – motion sickness pill, no matter how strong you are. Trust me. A road of billion potholes and a nutter taxi driver swaying from one end to another is enough to turn my stomach upside down, by the time we survived the 5 hour bumpy ride, my heart and kidney have swapped places, and twinkling stars over my head is an understatement. My 2 cents: Do not eat breakfast before the ride!!
At the border, we queued for at least another hour to get our passport stamped. Waited for 3 more travelers to share the 10 seating mini van to Bangkok city centre. Ironically, everything across the border seemed like heaven. We finally reached Khao San Road (ALA Petaling Street) after a horrendous traffic typically in Bangkok especially the rain, obviously did not help, we went round finding the right Sawadee Inn Hotel (Apparently there are 7 branches in Khao San alone). Met up with my cousin Kevin & his Thai gf Sue for dinner and we were served teddy bear shaped steam rice !!!!! How cute is thaaaaaaaat! As we dissect its body parts from head to toe, the tom yam tastes yummy.
Next day was a pure shopping spree at the unbelievably cheap chatuchat and pratunam wholesale market, we went nuts making impulsive purchases!
After 2 weeks, our trip had to end… leaving us a strong bonding of friendship among the new (as new as 5 days) and old friends (as old as 18 years). It is undoubtedly an eye opener for me how close friends can affect our lives. There was nothing else but pure joy and piercing laughter throughout the journey. My deepest appreciation to you guys and besteeeeest wishes. Afterall, we are….. hehee.. come on… bring it on one more time : ‘saaaame saaaame but different’!!
To rub salt on our wounds, we met with a broken bridge along the hell ride. After waiting for only 15 mins for it to be mended (which means pulling out 2 fallen small prank woods mind you that is smaller than the width of a car tyre and laid vertically), our mental taxi drive zoomed across the bridge as my heart raced a 100miles/hr !!!!
Highly recommend – motion sickness pill, no matter how strong you are. Trust me. A road of billion potholes and a nutter taxi driver swaying from one end to another is enough to turn my stomach upside down, by the time we survived the 5 hour bumpy ride, my heart and kidney have swapped places, and twinkling stars over my head is an understatement. My 2 cents: Do not eat breakfast before the ride!!
At the border, we queued for at least another hour to get our passport stamped. Waited for 3 more travelers to share the 10 seating mini van to Bangkok city centre. Ironically, everything across the border seemed like heaven. We finally reached Khao San Road (ALA Petaling Street) after a horrendous traffic typically in Bangkok especially the rain, obviously did not help, we went round finding the right Sawadee Inn Hotel (Apparently there are 7 branches in Khao San alone). Met up with my cousin Kevin & his Thai gf Sue for dinner and we were served teddy bear shaped steam rice !!!!! How cute is thaaaaaaaat! As we dissect its body parts from head to toe, the tom yam tastes yummy.
Next day was a pure shopping spree at the unbelievably cheap chatuchat and pratunam wholesale market, we went nuts making impulsive purchases!
After 2 weeks, our trip had to end… leaving us a strong bonding of friendship among the new (as new as 5 days) and old friends (as old as 18 years). It is undoubtedly an eye opener for me how close friends can affect our lives. There was nothing else but pure joy and piercing laughter throughout the journey. My deepest appreciation to you guys and besteeeeest wishes. Afterall, we are….. hehee.. come on… bring it on one more time : ‘saaaame saaaame but different’!!
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